9 December 2011

"Recolour an image from earlier in the year............and share both"

Not too daunting a task until you have a migraine for 3 days, then find yourself left with a head that feels like it's full of marshmallow! I've had the concentration span of a goldfish since Monday so not surprisingly my initial Copic recreation went in the bin - major booboo. Hence I finally opted for pencils - at least I could erase the mistakes!!!

Anyway, here goes, this is the original image I coloured with Copics way back in August

and here is the new version:

I chose a completely different colour palette (yellows, oranges and browns, oops and turquoise hair) with Caran D'Ache Supracolor Soft pencils on Kraft card. Oh and before I forget, yet again I remembered to choose my background papers first - see, I'm learning!!

As in my previous rendition, the flooring was added by yours truly with a Copic multiliner and the super cute little Christmas stamp was a new acquisition from LOTV. The flat backed pearls were from my teamie Elaines' store Quixotic Paperie.

Why not give it a go, this is an easy peasy challenge - at this time of year you don't need uber difficult challenges especially if you're brain is as mushed up as mine currently is!! Why not hop on over to the gallery to see what my teamies came up with which will hopefully inspire you to join in HERE

In the meantime I'm going to enter my little golden elves into some challenges myself:

4 December 2011

Although, I am a tad chilly it's not technically me that's turned blue so much as my card!!

This week over at Dustin Pike's Blog we're challenging you all to come up with a

CARD/PROJECT using NON-TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS COLOURS

Here's mine:

And I was so good this week, I picked out my paper first and then co-ordinated the colouring accordingly - normally I merrily colour my image then pull my hair out struggling to find an appropriate paper! I feel a New Years Resolution a brewing!!!

Copics Used:

B91, B93, B95, B97, B99 oh and B0000 and B000 for snowman with a touch of grey to help with the shadows.

Make it Crafty snowflake chippies were covered in white ink then Copic'd to match!

So come on dear blog visitors - put your greens, golds and reds to one side and come up with something totally awesome and post it HERE for your chance to win a free digi!

In the meantime I'm going to enter these little chaps in the following challenges:

25 November 2011

The image was coloured with Copics, the background was airbrushed with Caran D'ache pencil additions to the hair and clear gel pen on the halo.

I am going to try and do a "How to" section with the Make It Crafty Challenges from now on - in an attempt to make my posts a little more fun and fingers crossed - informative!!

How to Colour White

(well Jane's method anyway)

I've coloured the above image with Copics, but whatever medium you opt for will require similar colours to get this effect:

The temptation when you are faced with a white dress or at this time of year, snow, is to leave the area completely uncoloured. But that just leaves you with a very flat, somewhat boring image and if we're honest none of us want that.

To avoid this you actually need to colour the shadows and thereby give the impression of a white object - in this instance the little Angels dress and bow.

If you still think I'm being daft look at "white" objects around your house and you will see that none of them are pure white - they are basically shades of grey - to show what I mean here is an image of my radiator below:

Shock, horror - it's not plain white!!

I like to start with the palest grey and build up to the darkest shades - believe it or not from C00 right up to C5, blending as I go. I also added a dash of BG0000 and B0000. The only parts that I have left uncoloured are parts of the right sleeve and the two front folds and parts of the bow - everywhere else has been coloured with various shades of grey.

16 November 2011

Our very own Dustin Pike is featured in the November issue of the online magazine

Papers and Pixels

As one of his DT I was lucky enough to get my little old effort used in the article, how cool is that!

Apologies for the lack of a Copics colour list, I had to get this done in a hurry to beat the publishing deadline, but oh boy I had fun adding texture and depth with a mixture of Copic techniques, gel pens and glitter, not to mention the beautiful die cuts from Memory Box and Die Namics.

Copics techniques:

The Penguin hat and scarf is really simple - just dots of a slightly darker colour on top of a pre-coloured image.

For the Polar Bear I just built up layers of dashes, starting with the palest greys and working up to the darker ones. As you can see the knack is to be brave and leave gaps between your pen strokes. I've found this method the best for me to get fur, try it out for yourself, I'd love to hear how you get on and whether it works for you too.

As for the dies, although I used the Snowflakes Corner die, I opted to resist the urge to place it in the corner of my card, using it instead to break up the straight lines of the central image. Yes it means a lot of the die is hidden behind the penguin but it sort of works - what do you think?

11 November 2011

Colour an image with a light source from a lantern or candle within the image!

Yee gads, I hear you shout (or words to that effect)

That is the challenge we are currently running over at

MAKE IT CRAFTY

If you have a current copy of the new Magnolia Ink magazine you may have seen Zoe's guide on how to colour an image with a lamp - hence she decided to set us the challenge to try it too!

Well, ahem, where do I start on this one - having stamped out my image I masked her with Eclipse masking tape (awesome stuff) and covered the snow area with a roughly torn piece of kitchen towel and set to work with my Copic Airbrush (Oh boy that piece of kit is fun to use)

Then the hard work began, colouring by hand. As with Zoe's tutorial, you must pay attention to your light source, but equally to the shadows - and don't forget to use your greys!!!

I had a blast with the snow, it is probably the most realistic representation of fresh snow that I have achieved since I started using Copics - not quite there yet, but I am getting there - and if I am totally honest it is a little too "white" for this composition.

That's enough arty waffle..............here is the list of stuff used:

Magnolia - Midwinter Tilda

Craft Creations Christmas Scrolls - Red

Ribbon from stash

Die-Namics - Fancy Flourish

Make it Crafty - Swirly Corners

Copics (see below)

OK this is the bit I love - inviting you guys to have a bash at our latest challenge and ask you to post your entries in the gallery HERE

In the meantime I am going to enter this little girly in to the following:

8 November 2011

Oh my, I've spent so many hours trying to solve the problem experienced by many a Copic owner..........STORAGE!

As my collection grew so did the storage dilemma - initially I used the plastic boxes that the Copic sets come in, adding more as required. I stored them on their sides to keep the pens horizontal - holding the boxes together with parcel tape.

Unfortunately the pens are only gripped at the end and as you can see they dip downwards and the more boxes you stack the worse this gets - when you pull one pen out several follow!!

Not to mention this type of storage is not overly stable and even after adding blu-tac to stick the boxes to the wall I was greeted several times with a cascade of Copics all over my desk.

I am sure I don't need to tell you that various solutions are available - Totes, Racks, Cubbies and boxes but I wanted something that keeps the pens horizontal and allows me to store them in colour order and gives space for additional pens.

One solution then caught my eye - some people were using "eggcrate louvre" as used in suspended ceilings. However, I personally didn't like the wooden dowels that were being used to suspend the eggcrate - so I challenged my hubby to come up with a cleaner solution.

And here it is..............

This little beauty will take 396 Copic Sketch!!

If this is a solution that would work for you too here are the details you might find useful:

2 x Eggcrate Louvre - I got mine online as they aren't so easy to find here in the UK

Transparent silicone sealant

Hack saw

Handy-man Husband (Oh boy, the mess I would have made trying to do this myself)

Oh and I mustn't forget the Sizzix mat that was sacrificed..... you can see a portion of it attached to the front on the box - it was well worth cannibalizing the poor mat as it makes the whole box rock solid - I did not want the pens falling all over my desk anymore!! I am not saying you have to chop up your prized Sizzix mat, it's just what we used - you just need something of reasonable density to ensure the stability of the unit.

And in case you were in any doubt here's a side view:

Because the eggcrate is siliconed in at the base of the box and the top the pens are held securely and of course without the use of dowels you are not losing valuable pen space!!!

*****Additional Info*****

I've had quite a few emails asking where you can source the items required to make this storage unit, so here goes:

Storage Box:

In the UK, Really Useful Boxes are quite common, mine came from Hobbycraft.

Rest of the World -use Search Engine for suppliers

Any similar box will do, it just looks smarter if your box is square inside and saves you cutting your Eggcrate into a strange shape and of course maximises marker storage.

Eggcrate Louvre:

USA - Try Lowes or Home Depot

Rest of World - use Search Engine (that's what I did)

size of squares: 15mm x15mm

NB. This storage system is suitable for:

Copic Sketch

Copic Ciao

*****New Information*****

I have had a couple of emails recently asking how you attach the top eggcrate to the box.

Cut your eggcrate to size and before applying silicone sealant around the edge of it attach 4 pencils with wire, one in each corner.

Having applied the sealant carefully place the eggcrate inside the top of your box.

Now adjust/twist the wire so that the pencils lay firmly across the corners of your box, this enables you to hold your eggrate securely in place whilst the silicone sealant dries.

Once dry simply untwist the wire and remove the pencils

Then all you have to do is to put in all your markers

*********

I am chuffed to bits with my new storage - it stands with pride on my desk and the knowledge that it has room for quite a few more pens is a bonus!

I started with the upper background which I coloured in BV01, then sprayed some Isopropyl onto a small natural sponge dabbing it on to the Copics - it gives a beautiful dappled effect. I then added dots of BV02 and RV10 - dabbing on more alcohol until I had this soft speckled look.

Then I coloured the lower half in V91 and V93 after which I sprayed Isopropyl on a piece of denim and pressed it on to the Copic area (remembering to mask off the top piece first) - it gives a really subtle lined effect, best seen near the boys feet.

As for the girls clothing, her spotty skirt was created simply by colouring it in with various shades of red then adding tiny dots of blue - we don't always walk round in plain clothes so why should she! The texture on her sweater was achieved with Caran D'Ache pencils (sharpened to a point) - in an attempt to resemble knitwear - what do you think?

The boy was just as much fun - the seams on his jeans - that's an easy one - just apply your colourless blender to the coloured jeans until you've got the depth of fading you're after! As for the argyle pattern on his jumper - it's simply black, grey and white pencils, mimicking the shadows I'd already created using Copics. To give his hair extra dimension, which I never seem able to achieve with just Copics I added extra colour again with Caran D'Ache pencils (what would I do without them?)

One thing that doesn't show up well in the pictures is that I added clear Jelly Roll Glaze to the rubber parts of the Converse style footwear - it's just enough to give them a slight sheen.

And finally a few dots of White Gel pen - a word of advice, don't get carried away with highlights - "less is more" is my motto!

28 October 2011

I smile whenever I colour this particular Tilda as she was my very first Magnolia stamp!

I have her sitting inside a Stempelglede Grunge Ornamental Circle (lg) and added a dash of colour with Liquid Pearls, White gel pen and ribbon.

And if like me you need a little bit of inspiration to get those Creative Christmas juices flowing why not treat yourself to the new Magnolia Ink Magazine - it's full of Festive Crafting goodness and an interview featuring Zoe McGrath from Make it Crafty!

Tilda was coloured with Copics (sorry no list) and as per Zoe's tutorial in Magnolia Ink I've used lots of greys!!!

Congratulations Joyce, your parcel of goodies will be on it's way to Canada shortly!

Now it's time to announce the new

Make it Crafty Challenge

"Colouring snow"

No, I don't mean, dying snow silly colours and taking piccies of it, although that would be kind of fun (if you could find snow in October that is)

It's the challenge of colouring something white:

For me personally when colouring snow, or indeed anything white with my Copics I use the following colours:

BG0000 Snow Green

BG000 Pale Aqua

W00,W0, W1,W2 Warm Greys

The temptation with white objects is to leave them uncoloured, but if you look around the house at white objects you will quickly see that they aren't in fact pure white - they have shadows, contours and are usually made up of various shades of blue and grey. You may also notice that shiny white surfaces often reflect the colours of objects around them and indeed lights in the evening.....

Hence my choice of one of the new Make it Crafty Festive Elements digis available HERE

Not only am I able to demonstrate the depth you can achieve by using warm greys but you can see how the light from the lamp is reflected in the snow and in this instance, the ribbon too.

9 October 2011

Guess it's that time of year again when ghosts and ghoulies and things that go bump in the night come out to play................as a result the gals at Pike's Playground decided that the theme this time would be:

"SPOOKTASTIC"

(Halloween colours)

Oh the tales I could tell with this one.........before I go any further, I love the Die-Namics (black) and Memory Box (orange) dies - they are so delicate and perfect for the size of cards I make - I love them! However, initially I only had black ones on my card and for some reason I decided to embellish the swirls once I had glued them and the pumpkin image on the card!! So I picked up my Spica Pitch Black and Sakura Black Gelly roll and off I went - BIG MISTAKE!

Thank goodness I used a Quickie glue pen to stick them on, they peeled off nicely - but I had to carefully lift off the pumpkin image first - yee gads, when will I ever learn not to fiddle!!

In future I shall stick to merging digital images as I did here and concentrate on mastering that - I am getting better with Photoshop Elements - an amazing achievement for me as computers are really not my thing!! LOL (just ask my son)

Here's a close up:

The eagle eyed amongst you may be able to spot a hint of smoke coming from the purple witches flask - it's really simple to do - just doodle scribbly circles with a white pencil - the colour sits on top of the Copics. Woosh lines (well that's what I call them) were added to the Orange witches pot with the same pencil - try it, if you don't like it you can always erase it (guess what, I erased my first attempt!!)

Well enough blathering, here's the list of ingredients and challenges I want to enter this in to - and don't forget if you have any questions feel free to ask.